Obama gets tough on Pak, Afghanistan terrorists
Washington, February 25
Vowing not to allow terrorists to plot against the Americans from “safe havens” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, US President Barack Obama said the US would forge a new strategy to defeat the Al Qaida and combat extremism.

Indian students face racial abuse in NZ
Wellington, February 25
Indian students studying in New Zealand’s southernmost city Invercargill have been targets of racial abuse and called terrorists by local people, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Report: US missile strikes destabilising Pak
New York, February 25
US missile strikes and Pakistani military raids have reduced Al-Qaida’s global reach but heightened the threat to Islamabad as the group disperses its cells in the South-Asian country and fights to maintain its sanctuaries, a media report said here today.

Lankan army’s advance slows down
Colombo, February 25
Lankan troops’ forward march against the LTTE has been slowed due to heavy resistance by the Tamil Tigers who are battling to save their last stronghold Pudukudiyiruppu, even as 22 rebels were killed in fierce clashes.

Rescue workers help passengers after a Turkish Airlines passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday. The plane broke
into three parts when it hit the ground next to the runway. — Reuters

Clashes, bomb kill 32 in Afghanistan
Kandahar, February 25
A bomb exploded in Afghanistan and killed two civilians while 28 militants and two Afghan soldiers died in clashes, the authorities said.
The blast and the fighting yesterday took place in the south of the country, a Taliban stronghold where about 17,000 US troops are expected to deploy in the coming weeks.

Governor’s rule imposed in Pak Punjab
The federal government has imposed Governor’s rule in Punjab (Pakistan) for a period of two months, the presidential spokesman said on Wednesday amid reports that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was reluctant to endorse presidential actions.And in a fresh twist to the mounting political and constitutional crisis created by the court decision and series of conflicting orders issued by the federal government, the speaker Punjab Assembly, Iqbal Ahmed immediately summoned the session of the provincial Aassembly in the evening.

Washington, February 25
Vowing not to allow terrorists to plot against the Americans from “safe havens” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, US President Barack Obama said the US would forge a new strategy to defeat the Al Qaida and combat extremism.

Turning to the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in his first speech on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress focusing on economy, Obama said his budget for the first time “includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

Pak ground zero of
terrorism: Kerry

Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry today said Pakistan had become the “ground zero of terrorism” and “security threat” to the US.

Speaking after the release of a report on Pakistan by the Atlantic Council at the Capitol Hill, Kerry said the war in Afghanistan was being lost in Pakistan.

He also expressed his serious concerns over the Swat valley peace treaty with the Taliban terrorists. He added the time is running fast in Pakistan as the perpetrators of the 9/11 (which was planned from Afghanistan) are now sitting next door. — PTI

“For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price,” he said, adding: “We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.”

“And with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat Al Qaida and combat extremism. Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens half a world away,” the President said.

To overcome extremism the US must also be vigilant “in upholding the values our troops defend because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America,” he said giving his reasons for the closing of the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

“In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun. For we know that the US cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America,” Obama declared.

“To meet the challenges of the 21st century - from terrorism to nuclear proliferation; from pandemic disease to cyber threats to crushing poverty - we will strengthen old alliances, forge new ones and use all elements of our national power,” Obama said.

To respond to an economic crisis that is global in scope, he said US was working with the nations of the G20 to restore confidence in its financial system, avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism, and spur demand for American goods in markets across the globe.

“For the world depends on us to have a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world’s,” Obama held, saying the world was “waiting for us to lead” as “we stand at this crossroads of history”. —
IANS

Wellington, February 25
Indian students studying in New Zealand’s southernmost city Invercargill have been targets of racial abuse and called terrorists by local people, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Four of those targeted are Sikhs who wear turbans, which they said made some ignorant people confuse them with Arabs or Muslims, the Southland Times reported.

One victim, Jasdeep Singh, told the paper he had defied his religious principles and had a haircut to avoid wearing a turban because he feared for his safety. “I haven't told my parents yet,” he said. “They will be shocked and quite angry.”

Five students out of a group of 25 who arrived in Invercargill this month to study at the Southern Institute of Technology said they had experienced 16 incidents of racial abuse in the last 12 days.

Jasmail Singh said the abusers, men and women, were generally in their early 20s and the attacks, including calls to leave the country, had put them off walking around the city after dark. The institute’s business manager, Bharat Guha, said the police had been contacted over the attacks.

Southland police commander Barry Taylor said: “I would be very disappointed if the general community was participating in this sort of thing. I’m confident it’s a small minority.” —
IANS

New York, February 25
US missile strikes and Pakistani military raids have reduced Al-Qaida’s global reach but heightened the threat to Islamabad as the group disperses its cells in the South-Asian country and fights to maintain its sanctuaries, a media report said here today.

The strikes and raids are proving effective, having killed as many as 80 Qaida fighters in the past year, the New York Times quoted unidentified Pakistani intelligence officials as saying.

“But they (officials) expressed growing alarm that the drone strikes in particular are having an increasingly destabilising effect on their country,” the paper said.

The officials, the paper said, also voiced fears that the expected arrival of 17,000 US troops in Afghanistan this spring and summer would add to the stress by pushing more Taliban fighters into Pakistan.

The assessment, the Times reported, was provided during a two-hour briefing by senior analysts and officials of Pakistan’s main spy service, the directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

While the Pakistani analysts agreed with Blair that Qaida’s ability to conduct large-scale attacks against the US was most likely degraded, it also signaled no cessation in attacks by the Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban aimed at undermining Islamabad, the paper said.

The officials suggested that Qaida is replenishing killed fighters and midlevel leaders with less experienced but hardcore militants, who are considered more dangerous because they have fewer allegiances to local Pakistani tribes.

Qaida leaders have also increased their financing and logistical support to the Taliban and other militant groups, having come to see the survival of Qaeda sanctuaries as dependent on the ability of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan to hold territory, the paper said.

“It’s morphing into a monster and growing uglier,” one senior Pakistani intelligence official was quoted as saying.

Pakistani intelligence and military officials were quoted as saying there was no argument that Qaida fighters must be hunted down; they provide targeting information to the CIA, which remotely pilots
the drones.

But they complain that the missile strikes cause too many civilian casualties and that they hand the militants a propaganda windfall. — PTI

Colombo, February 25
Lankan troops’ forward march against the LTTE has been slowed due to heavy resistance by the Tamil Tigers who are battling to save their last stronghold Pudukudiyiruppu, even as 22 rebels were killed in fierce clashes.

Fierce confrontations were reported in north of Kombavil as troops of 58 Division advanced into the LTTE's last stronghold, Puthukudiyiruppu yesterday, reports received from the battlefront said today.

LTTE cadres were putting up stiff resistance in Pudukudiyiruppu apparently to save their stronghold from falling into the hands of army.

Military sources said scores of LTTE cadres were killed and many wounded.

Sri Lanka’s advances have also been slowed down due to the presence an estimated two lakh hapless civilians in the Wanni area in northern Lanka.

During search operations, troops have found bodies of eight LTTE cadre, the defence ministry said, adding that arms and ammunitions were also recovered from their possession. — PTI

Kandahar, February 25
A bomb exploded in Afghanistan and killed two civilians while 28 militants and two Afghan soldiers died in clashes, the authorities said.

The blast and the fighting yesterday took place in the south of the country, a Taliban stronghold where about 17,000 US troops are expected to deploy in the coming weeks. In Kandahar city, explosives fixed to a motorbike were detonated remotely as an Afghan army convoy passed, said the regional army commander, General Shair Mohammad Zazai.

Two civilians were killed and three wounded, while five Afghan soldiers were hurt, he told AFP. Heavy fighting erupted in the neighbouring province of Helmand late yesterday when gunmen attacked Afghan soldiers protecting police who were destroying illegal opium crops, the provincial government said.

“Eighteen militants were killed and two Afghan army soldiers were martyred,”provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said. The authorities announced separately that the US-led coalition and Afghan troops had killed 10 militants in the southern province of Uruzgan yesterday. The forces called in air support after an initial gun battle, which killed one militant, a joint press statement said.

“Nine militants were killed and one fortified fighting position was destroyed during the strike,” it said. — AFP

The federal government has imposed Governor’s rule in Punjab (Pakistan) for a period of two months, the presidential spokesman said on Wednesday amid reports that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was reluctant to endorse presidential actions.

And in a fresh twist to the mounting political and constitutional crisis created by the court decision and series of conflicting orders issued by the federal government, the speaker Punjab Assembly, Iqbal Ahmed immediately summoned the session of the provincial Aassembly in the evening.

The government acted to neutralise a move by the PML-N to requisition a session of the Punjab Assembly in an apparent bid to prove it still enjoys the confidence of the majority of members.

The imposition of emergency or The Governor's rule was interpreted as an implicit acknowledgment that the PPP may not be able to demonstrate majority in the House at this stage and would like to utilise the two-month period to manipulate it.

The spokesman claimed that the “Governor-rule” has been imposed on the “directive” of the Prime Minister under Article 234 of the constitution whose advice is mandatory for such an action.

It was learnt that the Prime Minister had been present in the President House for the last three hours, apparently showing resistance to the pressure to approve the actions taken under Zardari’s direction.

The deposed chief minister Shahbaz Sharif told newsmen that he received a call from Prime Minister Gilani expressing regrets for whatever has happened. “It is all wrong”, Sharif quoted Gilani as saying.

There is no provision in the constitution for “Governor’s rule” though in essence it means the same. The Article 234 in fact relates to imposition of emergency in case the Governor is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the province cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.